Quarterbacks

Remember last week, when I said Philip Rivers has one last chance to perform? Thankfully, he came through, with his best game of the year, no less. And the Oakland secondary might be worse than Green Bay’s. They’ve only held Kyle Orton and Matt Cassel to less than two touchdown passes. Even Tim Tebow, easily the league’s worst passing quarterback threw two touchdowns against them last week. With lingering injuries to Mike Tolbert and Ryan Mathews, the Chargers game plan should remain pass heavy, giving Rivers a great chance to post his first back-to-back solid outings since weeks one and two.

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Running Backs

If you’ve been paying the slightest amount of attention to the NFL you know that DeMarco Murray exploded into the starting role two games ago with a 253-yard effort against the Rams. What you may have missed was Murray’s solid 139 yards rushing and 47 yards receiving last week against the Seahawks. That was by far the best yardage effort an opposing back had put up against Seattle all season. Impressive. The only thing Murray missed was a touchdown, which is something he has a great chance to do against the Bills this weekend. Buffalo has allowed six rushing touchdowns in their last four games, and the only team they didn’t allow a running back score against was the vaunted Redskins rushing attack. Sarcasm intended.

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Wide Receivers

Thursday night, Vincent Jackson’s Chargers host a Raiders’ road pass defense that has been beat down more than Occupy Oakland activists. The Raiders have allowed opponents’ top receivers to average nearly 75 yards-per-game and five of them have scored. An injury to Malcolm Floyd led to Philip Rivers targeting Jackson twelve times last week, upping his season average to eight targets-per-game. Unfortunately for fantasy fans V-Jax has been feast or famine this season gaining all six of his touchdowns in the same three games he has topped 100-yards. In the other five scoreless games, Jackson has averaged three catches for 38 yards.